Couched
by tataalicat
Summary: After angering Jenny, Gibbs gets forced to sleep on the couch.


"Absolutely not."

"Yes."

"_Jen_."

"Don't 'Jen' me, Jethro. I'm not arguing this."

"What happened to keeping work and private life separate, huh?"

It was an agreement they had came to back when they decided to reignite whatever spark had been between them: that work and home were to be separated. Things from the agency weren't meant to follow them back home, and things from home weren't meant to follow them to the agency.

Of course, that rule was broken from time to time.

Her arms are crosses over her chest, hip cocked out to the side as she speaks, "I'm mad enough that I don't want you in the same bed as me."

This woman would surely be the death of him.

"Then why don't _you_ sleep on the couch?"

In hindsight, he should have known the moment the suggestion rolled off his tongue that it was the wrong thing to say.

"Are you really suggesting that I sleep on the couch, in my own home?"

He shrugs, "You're the one who doesn't wanna share a bed."

"And you're the one who thought it would be appropriate to scream at a reporter on live television without thought of how it would reflect on the agency." She countered, glaring at him with an intensity that she reserves strictly for politicians.

"He was contaminating a crime scene!" He shoots back, "You'd rather some hot shot news anchor compromise a murder scene?"

She takes a deep breath, something he's come to learn she does when she's trying to manage her temper.

"I would have rather you ask him to move to a different location like a civilized human being."

He opens his mouth to argue with her again, but she cuts him off before he can get a word in.

"Jethro, either you sleep on the couch, or you go to your own house. If you try to enter that bed, I may just shoot you."

She stormed off without another word, stomping her way up the steps and slamming the bedroom door for good measure.

Damn her and her red headed temper.

* * *

He had slept on his fair share of couches during tenure of his past relationships.

Typically it was on his own accord, a fruitless attempt to avoid a bubbling fight, lest there already be one in the works. He found it was easier to leave whichever wife it was to their own devices until one of them cooled down enough to let him back into their bedroom. But this?

This was something entirely new.

They had been in their fair share of arguments before; dating back to her probie days through the present, and they normally ended one of two ways. The first being all animosity between them was left behind in the NCIS building. The second being falling into bed to take out their respective frustrations on one another.

This was a third and unforeseen option, and it irritated him to no end.

He had considered her suggestion of just going back to his own house. There was a bed and boat there waiting for him, but this was an unspoken battle between the two of them that he was refusing to loose.

It was just nearing 1am when he finally felt himself begin to slip towards a state of slumber, his eyes heavy with exhaustion. Despite the uncomfortableness of her couch, and the fact that his back would for sure be killing him in the morning, he couldn't escape the clutches of sleep. Fighting with Jenny was always extremely draining.

His eyes were closed for mere minutes before he sensed another presence in the room.

She was standing in front of him in the darkness, arms crossed and a scowl on her face.

"Christ," he said, "Trying to kill me via heart attack Jen?"

"I can't sleep." She stated matter-of-factly.

"Yeah?" He asks, not bothering to hide the amusement in his voice, "That my problem?"

She lets out a frustrated huff, "Its your fault that I can't manage to go to sleep."

"My fault?" He says, amusement replacing itself with exasperation as he speaks, "I'm sleeping on the damn couch like you demanded, how the hell is it my fault?"

He watches as she runs a hand through her hair, finger combing the messy strands. Another habit she does when she's frustrated. She was tired and grumpy and he knew it.

"Because Jethro, you spend all your nights here and not in your own bed and now I can't sleep on my own anymore because I'm to co-dependent on your presence in my bed."

Theres a part of him that knows he should just follow her up to the bedroom and let the issue die, disregarding their current argument entirely, but he doesn't want to throw away this opportunity to inconvenience her in retaliation of banning him from the bedroom.

After all, she was the one who insisted he sleep on the couch.

"I'm comfortable here," he tells her, which was an absolute lie though he wasn't about to let her know that, "I'm gonna sleep on this damn couch 'cause I don't feel like being in the bed with you pissed off."

For a moment she remains completely motionless, mouth slightly agape as she stares at him through the darkenss. He thinks she's going to yell, or perhaps march back up the stairs as she did earlier in a fit of frustration.

He would be lying to himself if he said he ever anticipated her climbing on top of him, sprawling her smaller body over his with a stubborn huff.

"What the hell are you doing?" He asked, caught off guard by her actions.

"Going to sleep, Jethro. Some of us have an agency to run in the morning, and I wont get any rest alone, and since you're refusing to come to bed I am improvising."

As much as he wants to keep the game going, her tenaciousness towards her goal of a good nights rest makes him laugh despite himself.

"Go to sleep Jethro." She mutters tiredly, burying her face in his neck. The couch itself was much to small for more than a singular person to be sleeping on, but he would be kidding himself if he said he didn't enjoy the close proximity it provided; her being pressed against him this tightly in any scenario was .

"You're a pain in the ass." He says, pulling the blanket he had been using over the two of them, effectively cocooning her between it and his body.

"Love you too."

* * *

A/n: A quick one-shot while I take a small hiatus from 'Locus Amoenus', which will be updated soon enough. The holidays didn't provide me with enough time to sit down and work on another chapter. Hope you enjoyed.


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